Learning How to Understand Anything
The act of asking questions is what we refer to as thinking, asking effective questions while studying any topic aids comprehension.
List of questions to ask next time you're trying to understand a new concept
* What questions come to mind as you think about this?
* Which part do you know for sure? Which part do you understand?
* What do you notice?
* What kind of pattern do you notice?
* What do you wish was easier?
* Why? (Ask this question to encourage yourself to elaborate)
* What did you understand the question to be?
* What do you wonder about?
* How is this like life?
* If you were going to explain this to someone, how would you do it?
* Is there a chain of causation/ logical sequences ?
The language you use should provide:
• identity and metaphor -- how can I relate this concepts world to my own?
• decomposition -- how do I break down my thoughts into mind-sized pieces?
• recomposition -- how do I glue pieces together?
• readability -- what do these words mean?
It is important to make the thought of others you’re own by rethinking them when we think, we know the thought process we produce intimately. We understand the context of our thoughts. The reason we seem so convinced of our own ideas is that we see the details, context of our ideas and interconnections.
We immediately grasp our own insights. The connections between my concepts is clear to me through the concepts themselves.
the power of reason is based in our ability to abstract from particulars and refer universally to all things reverently similar.
Concepts makes it possible to refer to the whole universe or any part of it.
In general, there are often multiple ways of abstracting over a given set of concepts, and each one will bring out different patterns. The more ways we have of looking at the system, the most insights we can gather. The thinker constantly feels the need to seek for concepts and connections of concepts by becoming active and choosing to think. We are able to construct an inner conceptual process that corresponds to the outer event.
what do we gain by adding concepts to an observed event ?
We can predict what will happen.
if I have discovered the concept corresponding to the event I can predict what will happen, even when I’m no longer able to observe. First, we immerse ourselves within the text to master the content, eliminating personal preference and emphasis.
Then unexpected meanings emerge, revealing interdependence and symmetry that weave the single thoughts into a whole.
This requires a lot cognitive effort and time.
Let me reiterate, we must create thinking first before we can contemplate it. It is important to make the thought of others you’re own in order to fully understand.
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